Senior Software Engineer: Anti-Harassment Tools Full-time

Summary

The Anti-Harassment Tools Team at Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a Software Engineer to work with us to build features that help identify and stop harassment on all of our Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia. This role is full-time, 100% remote, and global.

The Anti-Harassment Tools Team is an interdisciplinary product team developing tools that help administrators and staff in their efforts to combat these people who would use our projects to harm civil discourse, the integrity of the content, or other users of our projects. This includes some light data analysis tools and some enforcement tools.

We are seeking a software engineer to join us in this fight to protect our users and our projects. Stopping harassment on our projects is a pillar of our Foundation’s strategy and planning for the future. This is important, highly visible work. Currently, we are working on a broad set of tools related to user privacy and protection. You can see more details in our backlog.

Your daily work will include contributing new patches or pull requests for existing features, generating requirements and prototypes for new features, estimating new work, collaborating with a designer, or helping a volunteer engineer get their code shaped up. The team is fully staffed with a Product Manager, Engineering Manager, Product Designer, Research Analyst, Data Analyst, Community Liaison, Test Engineer, and several Software Engineers, of course.

Because of the sensitive nature of the tools we build, our work is highly collaborative and heavily tested. We interact with database administrators, security engineers, and other teams on a regular basis.

We use open source tools as much as possible, and always open source our own work (check out our Github). PHP and JavaScript make up most of our code, but we value using the right tool for the job. Developers at the Foundation have autonomy and responsibility, and can have a large and immediate impact on the future of the site and the movement. Our world is vast and can be complicated, so we value communication, enthusiasm, and eagerness to learn as much as certificates or degrees.

Responsibilities

Architect, develop, test, and deploy new features, improvements and upgrades to various systems and tools used by administrators and staff
Partner with Foundation staff and volunteers on software design, development, testing and evaluation of potential technical solutions
Help identify and implement best practices in engineering processes across the team
Ensure positive and constructive discussions with the community and the Foundation
Work and communicate effectively within a small team distributed across multiple time zones
Requirements

Education and/or experience with Object-Oriented development using a scripting language (such as PHP, Python, Ruby, or JavaScript). Most of our work is in PHP and JavaScript
Interest in front-end web application development skills
Experience with collaborative open source communities
Openness to working with a diverse and geographically distributed team
Strong written communication skills as our collaboration largely happens online
Bachelor’s degree in CS or related field or the equivalent in work related experience
Nice to Haves

In addition to the basic skills needed for being successful, these skills could set you apart from the pack!

Experience with MediaWiki development or as a contributor to Wikimedia projects
Experience with unit testing and integration testing and agile methodologies
Any other free/open source software development experience is highly welcome
Understanding of the free culture movement
Experience with machine learning or AI technologies
Experience with online community moderation or anti-harassment tools
Show us your stuff!

If you have any existing open source software that you’ve developed (these could be your own software or patches to other packages), please share the URLs for the source. Links to GitHub, etc. are exceptionally useful. This is optional and your candidacy will not be negatively impacted if you don’t have public work to share.

The Wikimedia Foundation is…

…the nonprofit organization that hosts and operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge, free of interference. We host the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive financial support from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501©(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics.

If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at recruiting@wikimedia.org or (415) 839-6885.

U.S. Benefits & Perks*

Fully paid medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and their eligible families (yes, fully paid premiums!)
The Wellness Program provides reimbursement for mind, body and soul activities such as fitness memberships, baby sitting, continuing education and much more
The 401(k) retirement plan offers matched contributions at 4% of annual salary
Flexible and generous time off – vacation, sick and volunteer days, plus 19 paid holidays – including the last week of the year.
Family friendly! 100% paid new parent leave for seven weeks plus an additional five weeks for pregnancy, flexible options to phase back in after leave, fully equipped lactation room.
For those emergency moments – long and short term disability, life insurance (2x salary) and an employee assistance program
Pre-tax savings plans for health care, child care, elder care, public transportation and parking expenses
Telecommuting and flexible work schedules available
Appropriate fuel for thinking and coding (aka, a pantry full of treats) and monthly massages to help staff relax
Great colleagues – diverse staff and contractors speaking dozens of languages from around the world, fantastic intellectual discourse, mission-driven and intensely passionate people *Please note that for remote roles located outside of the U.S., we defer to our PEO to ensure alignment with local labor laws.